We discussed social media in his campaign, and he told me he had 5000 followers. My question was: “So why haven’t you contacted them with updates on your campaign?”

Despite the proven success of Barack Obama with social media campaigns, some of our local candidates are light years behind when it comes to embracing Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

I have already worked for one candidate and helped her advance through a four-candidate primary for her judicial position. Working with her campaign manager, we worked with her staff to fully embrace her electorate.

Yet, a quick visit to some candidates at the BCUD are showing they believe in the old school way of running a campaign. You’ve guessed it. I can expect more billboard signs and telephone campaigns in 2010. One Congressional representative sends me his two-minute missive every week, and I wish I could zap them from existence. I voted for him in the last campaign, but a couple more weeks of his telephone stuff might convince me to really look at his opponent’s credentials.

So, here’s a quick tutorial on how to use social media.

#1 Engage your younger volunteers to help put your message out to qualified voters. I was visiting one candidate’s office, and she was talking to a potential volunteer. She should ask him to instead volunteer time to post Facebook and Twitter messages to his friends.

#2 Building a base of voters is easy. Everyone has friends and other “peeps” who forward the message of your campaign. If you focus on building this every day, you can grow followers. Let me introduce one friend of my wife and mine from church as exhibit A on how to do this. Today, she has 400 or more followers which is not bad for someone with only one month of using Facebook.

#3 If you pay someone to manage your social media campaign, ask them how they will integrate Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and video. If they have a blank stare, when asked about this, please consider someone who gets this important concept.

Truthfully, I can think of 30 or 40 #bmpr types who can help you integrate these four basic tool sets. Of course, I would be glad to help, if I believe in you and your campaign. However, please don’t litter the wayside with your signs or ask me to listen to more of your telephone recorded messages. With so many social media tools, you can reach more voters with effective social media campaigns.